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Laptop won't boot

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by ebchamblee

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I am trying to get a ThinkPad T21 2647-DAU laptop to boot. The A/C adapter is plugged in and it shows the battery is charging. When the power button is pushed, the HD light flashes just for a second, then nothing, not even the bios screen. I've removed the battery, HD, and memory all at the same time, then put them back and got the same results. I've heard of some special key sequence you need to press to get it to boot. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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by tfordii

Around the same time my father's T21 laptop did the same thing. I've spent some time troubleshooting it and found that if I remove the battery and AC I can get into the BIOS. I have managed to install Linux on it and to get it to work.

Oddly though newer versions will not (Freespire 2.0, Ubuntu 7.04), I also unsuccessfully tried to reinstall XP. I will get to the hardware detection and it will fail. It seems that if I leave the battery in I'm unable to boot.

The laptop has the same basic problems. I was hoping that someone would have posted an answer.

I even managed to update the BIOS and change the CMOS battery. I have seen similar problems in a Dell at work. It's easier to deal with in Dell's (Pulled battery, entered BIOS, turned on Shift, CAP, and Num lock and then pressed Ctrl E and F). This is the clear for the BIOS, I haven't been successful in finding anything similar in a IBM. Theoretically removing the CMOS Battery (under the main battery) should do the same thing.

by jentoris_j

Remove the keyboard and see on the motherboard there is a chip pretty close to the keyboard socket, chip is called ADP3421. you just need a hot solder to removed the chip, after chip removed, plug the ac power and turn on the laptop for 5 seconds, then turn it off. Well, now you need to soldering the chip back. Goodluck!!

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